wrote (November 5, 2004):
This charming work does not appear in the list of Bach works, neither is it included in the list of 'Doubtful and Spurious Works' in Boyd's "Oxford Composer Companion - J.S. Bach". But this work was once attributed to J.S. Bach! I do not know its current status, and if it is mentioned in the NBA.

The Little Magnificat in A minor was even recorded. I am aware of only one recording - by the French/Canadian soprano Micheline Tessier with Arts Quebec Instrumental Ensemble from 1965. I do not know if the work has been recorded since, neither have I been able to find any mention of such recording in the web stores or elsewhere.

This only (?) recording was printed in Israel in the early 1970's. I do not know if this recording have been printed in CD form. But I believe tat it should be better known, A friend of mine converted it from the original LP to CD; I converted it to mp3 and uploaded it to the BCW. You can now listen to it from the page:http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Mus/BWVAnh21-Mus.htm

Please notice that this is a big file: 21.6 MB. It will take some time to upload it to your computer but it is worth the try.

Quoted from the liner notes on the LP:
********************************************************
J.S. Bach: Little Magnificat for Soprano Solo, Flute, Violin and Organ

Micheline Tessier - Soprano
Arts Quebec Instrumental Ensemble

This Magnificat dates in all probability from about 1720. Hear for the first time after a silence of two and half centuries, this work was written no doubt for an intimate gathering of Bach's friends and family. Thus we have here a bonus composition, conceived not for the regular Sunday services or written on order. It was for his own pleasure that Bach composed this setting of the Magnificat.

The manuscript - like most works of a man who composed neither for fame nor for posterity - is a first draft, and is unsigned. Once again, we are placed in a midst of a controversy, as to whether the manuscript is authentic.

The Little Magnificat was first heard of in 1858, on the occasion of the publication of the great Magnificat in D Major. The work was lost again until 1940, when a musicologist found the MS at the Saltykov-Scedrin State Library in Leningrad. Another fifteen years were to elapse before the work was heard of again. This time, it was the German critic Alfred Dürr who voiced his doubts about the authenticity of the Magnificat. Now the initiative was taken by the publishing house of De Santis, who, aided by the Italian musicologist Ermenegildo Paccagnella, undertook to establish beyond any doubt the authorship of the Magnificat.

Upon examining the manuscript, one immediately notices certain characteristics peculiar to Bach, such as his seal on the first page and the mention of Soli Deo Gloria at the end. The pages do not follow a numbered sequence, which indicates that Bach, as was his custom, borrowed pages for this work from another, unused one. Calligraphic similarities in the notes and in the words, as personal as fingerprints, are also found here is abundance. But it is the musical writing, which will inevitably lead the analyst to the conclusion that here is a typical work of Bach. The choral structure of mono-harmonic passages, the precise and varied phraseology, the polyphonic texture, the natural relationship of the various tonalities, the method of ornamentation, and the means of melodic variation, all bear the unmistakable hallmark of Bach's genius. This ultimate test, which is the most gratifying and in all likelihood the most conclusive one, as the audition of the work, with an attentive ear and an open mind.
********************************************************
I am curious to know:
a. What is the current status regarding the authenticity of the Little Magnificat?
b. What is your opinion of the work and the recording?
c. Are you aware of any more recordings of the work?

I'm still downloading your MP3 so I cannot check if it is the same work, I'll try later.
Do you have this CPO cd?

Thomas Braatz

wrote (November 5, 2004):
Aryeh Oron wrote: >> Have you heard about the Little Magnificat? This charming work does not appear in the list of Bach works, neither is it included in the list of 'Doubtful and Spurious Works' in Boyd's "Oxford Composer Companion - J.S. Bach". But this work was once attributed to J.S. Bach! I do not know its current status, and if it is mentioned in the NBA. I am curious to know:
a. What is the current status regarding the authenticity of the Little Magnificat?<<BWV Anh. 21 Magnificat in A minor

The NBA II/9 KB (2000) discusses this work, and guess what? It's by Melchior Hoffmann whose history and work was discussed on this list fairly recently.

W. Gillies Whittaker has an extensive analysis of this work in vol. 1 of his "The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach."

I'll try to share further details from the NBA as soon as I find some time.

...by Melchior Hoffmann. The 1998 edition of BWV puts this into appendices 1 and 3, and refers the reader to an article by Andreas Glöckner, pages 97-102 in the 1982 edition of Bach-Jahrbuch.

I hadn't heard of the piece. Thanks for mentioning it, Aryeh!

Thomas Braatz

wrote (November 5, 2004):
The following is a translation from the NBA KB II/9 pp. 67-68

Magnificat in A minor by Melchior Hoffmann BWV Anh. 21

The Magnificat in A minor, the so-called 'little' Magnificat, was accepted by the editors of the BG as an authentic work by J. S. Bach since it was purportedly an autograph manuscript. However, it never made it to the final printed version in BG 11/1 because of the apparently deliberate loss of the score caused by Siegried Wilhelm Dehn. (explained by Andreas Glöckner in an article "Die Leipziger Neukirchenmusik und das "Kleine Magnificat BWV Anh. 21" contained in the Bach-Jahrbuch 1982, p. 97.) It was discovered later on that Dehn had given the score as a present to Alexis von Lwoff in St. Petersburg. Today the score is located in the St. Petersburg Saltykov-Stschedrin Library where W. G. Whittaker rediscovered it (W. Gillies Whittaker, "A lost Bach Magnificat' in "Music & Letters" 1940, pp. 312-318.) Only after a closer inspection/analysis of the manuscript carried out by
Alfred Dürr and Frederik Hudson in connection with the preparatory work demanded by the NBA, the former opinion regarding the work had to be revised: what was
once considered to be a Bach autograph score turned out to be a composition written in an unknown, unidentifiable handwriting.

Based upon a comparison of an autograph title page of a Telemann cantata "Singet dem Herrn" (1708) included as a facsimile in the catalog of the Magdeburg Commemorative Telemann Exhibition, Hans-Joachim Schulze ("Das "Kleine Magnificat" BWV Anh. 21 und sein Komponist" in Musikforschung 21 {1968}) came to the conclusion that the Magnificat was a Telemann autograph. However doubts arose concerning this attribution after questioning more carefully the owner of this Telemann score (the Royal Library of Copenhagen) regarding whether this was a genuine Telemann autograph.

Meanwhile, Glöckner, in the above-mentioned article reported that he had been able to locate among the piles of anonymous compositions of the Berlin State Library (BB: Berliner Staatsbibliothek) a set of parts for the 'Little Magnificat.' Among the copyists involved in copying these parts there was one that was identical to the handwriting of the Leningrad/St. Petersburg score. This was the composer of the score. Among the other copyists, as confirming evidence, were, among others, the musical director of the 'Neukirche' (New Church) in Leipzig, Carl Gotthelf Gerlach and the young Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. All of this points to the fact that the 'Little Magnificat' originated and was probably composed for the music program of the Leipzig Neukirche [New Church.]

By means of further comparisons between the various handwritings, Glöckner finally succeeded in being able to identify the one who wrote and composed the Leningrad-St. Petersburg score: it was the musical director of the Neukirche [New Church] in Leipzig, Melchior Hoffmann, who composed the work c. 1708.

Here, once again, is the article by Glöckner on Hoffmann from the Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2004 - acc. 11/5/04): [Notice that there is another Magnificat in d minor (1700) listed below]

>>Hoffmann, Melchior

(born in Bärenstein, near Dresden, c1679; died in Leipzig, 6 Oct 1715). German composer and organist. As a choirboy in the Dresden Hofkapelle, Hoffmann received his musical training from Johann Christoph Schmidt. He went to Leipzig in autumn 1702 and enrolled at the university to study law. He also joined the student collegium musicum founded by Telemann. When Telemann left Leipzig in June 1705, Hoffmann succeeded him as organist and music director of the Neukirche, and took over as director of Telemann's collegium musicum. He was also conductor of the Leipzig civic opera, which had been in existence since 1693 and for which he wrote a number of works. In 1709 he met the violin virtuoso Johann Georg Pisendel, who became leader of the orchestra of Hoffmann's collegium. At this time the ensemble consisted of 50 to 60 musicians and had won fame and recognition beyond the Leipzig area. [note the size of this ensemble!]

Hoffmann seems to have visited England between 1709 and 1710, but no details are known. There is no definite evidence of a visit to Italy in 1714 either, and it is unlikely that he went there. In 1713 he applied, along with J.S. Bach and three other candidates, to succeed F.W. Zachow as organist at the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle. When Bach eventually declined the appointment on 19 March 1714 the Halle consistory offered it to Hoffmann, but although he officially accepted the post he never took up his duties in Halle, and in fact resigned on 23 July. On 9 September 1714 he married Margaretha Elisabeth Philipp and in the same month became one of the few Leipzig musicians of the time to be granted citizenship. He had been suffering from a serious illness since 1713 and died on the evening of 6 October 1715, aged only 36. He was buried in the Johannisfriedhof in Leipzig on 10 October; all the pupils of the Thomasschule attended the funeral.

Hoffmann died a prosperous citizen, regarded by his contemporaries as an important composer and a sensitive musician. The Leipzig chronicler Christoph Ernst Sicul described him in an obituary as 'a famous composer', whose collegium musicum had produced many fine musicians holding prominent positions as organists or in the Kapellen of major German courts.

Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, a member of Hoffmann's collegium from 1707 to 1710, and the Darmstadt court poet Georg Christian Lehms also paid tribute to Hoffmann's great importance in their writings, and Charles Burney regarded him as one of the finest composers of the first half of the 18th century. In spite of his early death Hoffmann left a quite extensive body of work, although only a fraction of it has survived. Very little from his secular output, and in particular from his operas, is extant, and his music only began to attract attention from musicologists when three works previously attributed to Bach (BWV 53, BWV 189 and BWV Anh. 21) were recognized as being by Hoffmann (or, in the case of BWV 53, probably by him). In older studies Hoffmann has often been confused with the Breslau composer Johann Georg Hoffmann.

Melchior Hoffmann's music shows a feeling for unusual and effective orchestration. His cantata and opera arias are notable for their pleasant, attractive and accessible melodies, sometimes with a strong emotional emphasis, as in the cantata Meine Seele rühmt und preist. His later compositions show Italian influence.

wrote (November 5, 2004):
[To Aryeh Oron] How fascinating. I will listen to it at home.

Yoël L. Arbeitman

wrote (November 5, 2004):
Aryeh Oron wrote: < I do not know if the work has been recorded since, neither have I been able to find any mention of such recording in the web stores or elsewhere. >Thank you for you effort, Aryeh. (1) Such a large file is beyond the downloading capabilities of a dial-up modem. (2) By sheer coincidence I received an order from Broinc yesterday and it included the CPO disk. As others have said, a charming enough work. On the CPO disk it is coupled with two apocryphal missae breves, only the 2nd of which (Anh. 26) I have thus far listened to.

Douglas Cowling

wrote (November , 2004):
[To Thomas Braatz] I may have missed the information in this string, but is the Hoffman Magnificat published?

Their citation of "BWV Anh. III 168" is incorrect. That number belongs to the previous item listed in Anhang III, the Kyrie in G minor by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. (Page 467 of the 1998 BWV, bottom two items of the page...)

Discussions in the Week of April 5, 2009

Douglas Cowling

wrote (April 3, 2009):Week of April 5, 2009: Magnificat in A Minor, Sanctus in D major and in C Major

Week of April 5, 2009: Magnificat in A Minor, Sanctus in D major and in C Major.

Hoffman¹s setting was attributed to Bach at the time of BGA but was delisted by the NBA. It is not clear whether this is a liturgical setting of the canticle which would have been sung at Vespers or a cantata intended for a Marian feast such as the Visitation when the account of the song¹s origin was read. There is no Christmas connection. There are textual variants from the liturgical text, principally the use of the metrical Gloria Patri: ³Lob und Preis² instead of ³Ehre sei Gott². The variants may not be significant. The text is closer in organization to Bach¹s mix of scriptural and poetic in BWV 10, ³Meine Seel erhebt den Herren.² There is no evidence that Bach knew or performed Hoffmann¹s lovely setting, but it would have been a useful work to have in his repertoire because of its small scale: solo soprano alone with strings and flutes/recorders (the later in the first movement only.) If it was a liturgical setting of the canticle, it¹s not hard to imagine it being used at the Tuesday, Friday or Saturday Vespers which were not as lavish as Sunday but more elaborate than Monday, Wednesday or Thursday.

1. Aria: ³Meine Seel erhebt den Herren²
The music is rapturous rather than exultant with an expressive dotted figure which appears to be a variation of the German Magnificat chorale. Oddly, the recorders/flutes are only used in this movement
2. Recitative: ³Denn er hat seine elende Magd angesehn²
Bach never used recitative in his settings of Latin liturgical texts, but then we don¹t have any settings of German canticles. All of the recitatives here are superbly shaped.
3. Aria: ³Und seine Barmherzigkeit immer für und für²
This extended aria with continuo alone has some similarity to ³Höchster, mache deine Güte² in ³Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen²
4. Aria: ³Er übet Gewalt mit seinem Arm²
This Handelian style aria has delicate coloratura work
5. Aria: ³Er stößt die Gewaltigen vom Stuhl²
The continuo provides a spirited ³rage² accompaniment.
6. Recitative: ³Die Hungrigen füllt er mit Gütern²
Another exquisitely shaped accompanied recitative
7. Aria: ³Er gedenket der Barmherzigkeit²
The strings have an expressive unison in the lower register.
8. Recitative: ³Wie er geredet hat unsern Vätern²
9. Aria: ³Lob und Preis sei dem Vater²
The similarity to ³Jauchzet Gott² is striking: the soprano intones the German Magnificat chorale over a spirited string figure.http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Magnificat.htm
10. Aria: ³Wie es war im Anfang²
The sustained chorale is succeeded by brilliant coloratura which does not make any allusion to the opening movement.

2) J.S. Bach: Sanctus in C, BWV 237

The C Major Sanctus opens with the same festive splendour which is encountered in the 1733 Sanctus which was used in the Mass in B Minor. The setting has no orchestral introduction (see ³The Sanctus in Leipzig² below) The ³choir² of trumpets and timpani is reminiscent of similar effects in ³Gott ist mein König² and ³Christen Ätzet diesen Tag². Interestingly, Bach uses very little counterpoint, preferring antiphonal effects between groups of voices and instruments. A secondary theme is introduced at ³Pleni Sunt Coeli² and again treated homophonically for antiphony. Only ³Gloria eius² is given a rising theme which is briefly developed contrapuntally.

3) J.S. Bach: Sanctus in D, BWV 238

The D major Sanctus has an unusual scoring. The SATB voices are doubled by cornetto, violin 2, viola and continuo. Only the first violins have an independent part and that opens with basically a written-out harmonic tremolo. Where the C major Sanctus was homophonic, this setting opens with a five-voice fugue (the violins providing the last voice). At ³Pleni sunt Coeli², the music shifts into a new fugue in 12/8 time, not unlike the shift to 6/8 in the Sanctus of the B Minor Mass. The extended runs in parallel thirds on ³gloria² seem to be a stock motif, one which also appears in the B Minor Mass.

THE SANCTUS IN LEIPZIG:

[Sources: Stiller, Leaver, Stauffer & Kervorkian]

Although the synaxis or ³fore-mass² of the Roman mass with its Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, chanted readings and Credo was retained intact by Luther in both his German and Latin mass formularies, he eliminated all of the prayers of the Offertory and Roman Canon because of their sacrificial, propitiary theology. Luther kept a chorale, the so-called ³Pulpit hymn² which replaced the Roman offertory antiphon (e.g. ³Domine Jesu Christe² in the Requiem mass). That hymn accompanied the celebrant¹s movement from the pulpit to the altar and the clergy¹s preparation of the bread and wine. Most of the congregation left the church at this point if they were not receiving communion, the remainder moving up into the choir stalls near the altar.

The consecration of the bread and wine was preceded by the Latin dialogue ³Dominus vobiscum² and the ³proper preface² which the celebrant chanted to the Roman tone and which recounted the principal theological theme of the day. Bach¹s choir sang this dialogue in 4-part polyphony on ordinary Sundays and in 6-papolyphony on greater festivals (the Sanctus of the B Minor Mass is in 6 parts.) Luther edited the text of the Sanctus which followed to make it conform to the scriptural source in Isaiah: ³Gloria tua² became ³Gloria ejus² and the Osanna, Benedictus and Osanna were eliminated. It is a point of controversory why Bach did not change the Sanctus in the Mass in B Minor to make it reflect Catholic usage: did he not notice the difference? Small though it is, Luther¹s variant would have prevented the 1733 setting being used in a Catholic mass.

All of Bach¹s original settings and copies of other composers¹ settings of the Sanctus begin ³ex abrupto² without an orchestral introduction. That suggests that the ³Dominus vobiscum² setting was pitched to provide the key of the Sanctus setting. The other possibility is that Bach played an improvisatory ³introduzione², the role served by chorale-preludes before other choral works and hymns. On non-festival occasions, the choir sang the German chorale version of the Sanctus, ³Jesaia, dem Propheten, das geschah². After the Sanctus, small bells were rung at the altar and the celebrant sang the Lord¹s Prayer and Verba, the Words of Institution, in German.

It is significant to note that Bach always considered the Sanctus as a stand-alone text and not part of a cyclical mass. This was not a Lutheran innovation. Catholic composers wrote both cyclical masses and independent mass movements. Both Monteverdi¹s ³Gloria a 6² and Vivaldi¹s famous ³Gloria² were written as insertions in other mass settings. Mozart wrote an independent Kyrie and performed the unfinished Mass in C Minor with insertions from other works. Stauffer points out that the Catholic court at Dresden frequently assembled masses from disparate sources and that the so-called ³Lutheran Mass², consisting of a paired Kyrie and Gloria, was also used by Catholic choirs. That research shows that the term ³Lutheran Mass² and ³Missa Brevis² should be avoided as not demonstrably generic.

MUSICAL SEQUENCE OF VESPERS ON CHRISTMAS DAY:

[Sources: Wolff, Terry, Leaver & Williams) Terry & Wolff omit (miss?) the opening responses by Demantius which are in the Vopelius ³Neue Leipziger Gesangbuch². In an e-mail last year, Leaver wrote that there were questions about the position and performance of the psalm in the Leipzig vespers.]

Bells are rung at 1:15
The 5200 kg bell ³Gloriosa² (1477) (pitched in A) was rung only on festivals
Musicians must be in loft by final bell or be fined.

Prelude before Motet
[The organ began to play only when the service began after the opening bell.
Organ music did not accompany the congregation coming into the church]
Motet: Choices include:
³Cum Natus Esset Jesus:
³Hodie Christus Natus Est² (Gabrieli)
³Surgite Pastores

wrote (April 4, 2009):
Douglas Cowling wrote:< Week of April 5, 2009: Magnificat in A Minor, Sanctus in D major and in C Major. >Is anyone aware of a downloadable PDF of the score of the Little Magnificat ?

Douglas Cowling

wrote (April 4, 2009):
T. Barndt wrote:< Is anyone aware of a downloadable PDF of the score of the Little Magnificat ? >I couldn't find one.

I also forgot to ask where the moniker "Little" came from. It's an unfair name to give to a work that is an extended solo cantata of considerable beauty and which is not in the same genre as Bach's D major setting. C.P.E. Bach's superb Magnificat also suffers from slighting comparison's to Papa's work.

T. Barndt

wrote (April 4, 2009):
Douglas Cowling wrote:< Week of April 5, 2009: Magnificat in A Minor, Sanctus in D major and in C Major. >Doug, Thank you for the work you have been doing giving background for the discussion group.

As a newcomer to the list, I found it a great help.

To introduce myself: I studied piano and music theory in my youth. I've been involved in amateur music-making all my life. One of the joys of my retirement has been not only the re-discovery of old friends ( i.e. compositions by Bach ) that I enjoyed over the years, but also the newly-made acquaintance of works I had never encountered in the past. *And works like the Hoffman Magnificat and the Kuhnau Uns ist ein Kind Geoboren which give insight into compositions mistakenly attributed to Bach - both of which are delightful regardless of whether they were by Bach or not.*

They are general works but by the finest modern Bach scholars. Lots of gret bibliography.

Jean Laaninen

wrote (April 6, 2009):
[To Douglas Cowling] This is a first time for me to hear this work, and I am curious to know if you think this was actually Bach's work or the work of someone else, and why.

Some of it sounds like Bach to me, and there are places where new types of motive use (from what I can hear) make me wonder. I imagine in the context of works that may be spurious that examination of the score is one criteria for trying to decide whether or not something might be from Bach or not.

Your introductions have been quite superlative, and I do want to say thanks.

I would suggest also the Oxford Composer Companion (OCC) to Bach, which I believe is out of print, but may be available via library or second-hand sources. A bit difficult to navigate for the newcomer (as I was, three years ago), but a very handy and concise single-volume reference. Pleasingly accurate, in comparison with more detailed and/or up-to-date scholarly sources.

Of course, the besource of information is to attend live performances whenever possible, listen to your recordings at other times, and browse through the twenty thousand pages of archives on BCW (which you can do while listening to recordings, not recommended for live performances).

Jean Laaninen wrote:"This is a first time for me to hear this work, and I am curious to know if you think this was actually Bach's work or the work of someone else, and why."The composer of the Little Magnificat is Georg Melchior Hoffmann, who is also the "real" composer of Cantatas BWV 53 & BWV 189.

wrote (April 6, 2009):
[To Ed Myskowski] I agree with all this. Having done the introductions for 3 sets of violin works for the Bach Recordings mailing list, and having looked up each work in all the books on Bach I have, I would say it is definitely worth getting the Boyd (ed.) book in the Oxford Composer Companion series if you can. I would also recommend the Martin geck and Peter Williams general guides. there is surprisingly little repetition across these general guides. I usually discovered something new in each of these books and they all deal with the broad subject of Bach in different ways. I have also got another book on order from Amazon: Amazon.co.uk